Archives for August 2017

How to Add Personal Touch to Your Reception – The Empire Room

If you truly want your friends and family to remember your big day vividly for the rest of your lives, personalization is the key. Adding little personal touches to your wedding ceremony and reception party can create a more finished and thoughtful effect. And we are all about thoughtfulness.

So here are some unique ways you can stray from the out-of-the-mill, and foray into something made-only-for-you.

A quick note, to make the event memorable, some of these ideas include getting your guests involved in the activities as well. This makes them feel special and a part of your big love story!

Parade to the reception

If the reception venue is walking distance away from the wedding venue, invite your guests to follow you – and a boisterous band – from ceremony to reception.

Thank You Notes

Prepare beautiful hand-written and unique notes for each of your guests when they enter the reception. You can write anecdotes, a joke, or just a heartfelt thank-you for every guest. This makes it really personal and they feel super special because of that! Also, when you use these cards, you don’t have to receive each guest personally – more time for photo sessions!

Projector Slideshow

Play a slideshow of all the lovely pictures you are dying to show off. Rent a projector and have it present the slideshow on the walls. This creates a truly stunning effect throughout the reception venue.

Use the Music

What were your favorite songs while growing up? Play the music that brings back the memories of the moments you spent with your loved ones; the song you and bestie used to dance to all the time, or maybe that song your father was always humming? The trick is to include meaningful songs.

Group Fun

Plan something fun like a group outing to the zoo, museum, or planetarium. From the out-of-towner guests to adventure lovers, everyone will appreciate the unique experience.

Flower Power

Nothing says I care for you as well as flowers. Provide individual boutonnieres for men and flower hair clips for women in the party. You can make it more personalized by choosing everyone’s favorite flowers and including that in the floral accessories.

Invite Guest to Speak

Ask your friends and families to share their marital wisdom or funny stories with everyone. It could be surprisingly hilarious or deeply sentimental. Make sure to tell them (beforehand) to keep the speeches short.

Seating

Design the seating arrangement in a way that all the guests can see and interact with each other. To achieve this, make it a long round arrangement instead of small tables all over the hall.

Time Capsule

Take an empty bottle of wine and have your loved ones put handwritten notes in it. It could be marriage tips or funny joke. Hammer it shut and wait for your 10th wedding anniversary to open it.

Plant a Sapling

Take a small potted plant and use the soil from both of your hometowns (or backyards) while planting it in your shared abode. You can plant it after you get home from celebrating the honeymoon.

7 Ways You Can Use Water Colors In Your Summer Wedding 2017

In the recent years, we have seen a lot of couples choose watercolor wedding invitations. But now, the fondness for watercolor is growing even more, as brides-to-be are happily opting to use it in the wedding décor.

From wedding cakes to trendy escort cards, watercolors have the unique – almost magical – ability to transform the whole décor. It is also a great option if you’re looking for a twist on the classic elegant wedding theme.

If you have also seen the romantic watercolor wedding invitations, and want to take it one step ahead, here are some ideas you’ll love.

Watercolor Wedding Stationery for the Bride

Apart from the wedding invitations, watercolors can also be used to design the rest of bridal stationery. As it goes, there is no dearth of colors to choose from – soft pink, lilac, pale purple, rose, pale green, cerulean blue, and many more. Keep the theme and color palette of your wedding in mind while choosing the colors.

Add Color to the Otherwise Minimalist Theme

If you have chosen an all-white theme, you can spice things up with watercolor place settings. For example, opt for watercolor napkins and flatware. If the dinner plates are white, then pink or purple hued napkins and flatware is a fun way to try the watercolor trend.

Up the Ante with Watercolor Fabric Table Runners

If your wedding décor incorporates charming wooden tables, you can add to the charm by using watercolor table runners. It contrasts spectacularly against the wooden background and add a touch of whimsy. Not to mention your guests will be left in awe of this unique idea.

Also, it doesn’t all have to be pink – think blue-dipped napkins to match the rose hued flower arrangements. When it comes to watercolors, the sky is the limit. You can even opt for beautiful hand-crafted watercolor paper accessories to decorate the dinner table.

Do Away with Old Rectangular Escort Cards

You can swap the regular escort cards for the watercolor ones. The softly colored cards go well with most of the wedding themes – wooden rustic, elegant classic, or even minimalistic. Again, decide whether you want it to match the rest of the décor or contrast it.

This Season Calls for a Colorful Wedding Cake

If you did not already know – because you don’t checkout the Pinterest trends (shock!), you can enjoy a watercolor wedding cake!

A pale peach and pink colored wedding cake, for example, just reeks of romance! You can choose different colors for the different tiers, or even opt for a multiple-color single-tiered cake. Ah, talk about easy on the eyes and the palate.

Substitute the Old Fashioned Packaging

You can have so much fun with watercolor favor packaging! For example, choose the color blue for favors for men, and choose pink for women. It looks visually stunning and instantly adds a ton of value to the wedding favors.

So here you are. If you can think of more ways to incorporate watercolors into the wedding décor, let us know.

Top Snack Ideas for The Bridal Party on Your Dallas Wedding Day

Sometimes planning every detail leading up to the wedding ceremony takes so much time, that feeding yourself takes the backseat. We suggests if you don’t want to feel lightheaded with hunger while walking down the aisle, consider these easy and delicious snacks to fill you up.

You can either have your caterer prepare these snacks for you and the bridal party, or you can order in. either way, you will be energizes and not hangry on the big day.

Watermelon and Ricotta

Chickpea bites

Looking for a yummilicious protein blast? Choose fried chickpeas that are really easy to consume even if you’re already done with the makeup. A lot of brands offer a wide range of spiced and fried chickpeas.

Smoothie

You can also have regular fruit smoothies but we suggest healthy green smoothies. For a true combination of taste and health, use frozen mango chunks, avocado, coconut, cashews, and water. You will be surprised how delicious these are!

Avocado Toast

It’s super healthy and simply delicious. Your health conscious guests will appreciate the good fat in the avocado, while the taste-lovers will enjoy the perfect creamy flavor!

Asparagus Tartine

Love quick toasts? Give it a yummy twist by adding silky ricotta cheese, and blanched asparagus. It tastes crunchy and fresh, and you can also add herbs for enhanced flavor.

Spiced Cashews

No party is complete without cashews remember? If you’re looking for some quick and nutrient-packed snack options, it can’t get better than spiced almonds, cashews, and peanuts. Really, any nuts will do.

Popcorn, Anyone?

Everybody – we repeat, everybody – loves to munch on popcorns. They are easy to snack on and come in so many flavors – sea salt, garlic, cumin, paprika, and much more.

Homemade Granola

If you think your bridal dearies will enjoy healthy and preservative-free granola, have your caterer make some. Full of organic nuts and dried fruits, you can also serve it with Greek yogurt – making it look like yummy parfaits!

No-Crumb Crudite

For the pre-wedding snacks, you definitely want something healthy and crumb-free. Creamy and luscious Crudite is perfect for that hour.

Salads

If you and your bridal party love eating salads, tasty options are limitless. Fresh vegetables, whole grains, and lots of other good stuff, like this salad – crispy rice, lemon, roasted broccoli, chili, Parmesan cheese, and shallots.

Quiche

From vegetarians to meat-lovers, a quiche can be customized to suit everyone’s taste buds. Best part? They are healthy and don’t make you bloated. You can choose vegetarian options – vegetables & cheese, or bacon-heavy.

Frittata

It may sound basic but here’s why we love it – it’s full of protein and easily customizable! And to be honest, who doesn’t love a fresh frittata?

Taco Quinoa

7 Crucial Wedding Details You Need to Keep an Eye On – Empire Room

There are a ton of things that need your attention while planning for the big day. So, it’s quite understandable that you might lose sight of little details – little details that count a lot. To take care of this for you, we have compiled a list of such offending details that sometimes just escape notice.

The Grand Entrance

You pay so much attention to the décor of the ballroom or the main venue, then why not extend the same careful treatment to the entryway? The entrance is the first thing guests notice about the venue – don’t let the opportunity slip.

Decorate the entry way with hanging lanterns that line the entire pathway, or have your florist design a long-height table arrangement for the escort cards. You can also use floral garlands to hang around the door frames.

Spell out the directions for your guests

It might not seem a big deal but when dozens of guests keep calling you to ask for the venue directions…it can get daunting.

To avoid this, be proactive and put up huge signs for every wedding spot clearly specifying the directions. If you have a wedding website, that’s even better – use Google Maps to mark the right turns and let your guests know about this.

Speaking of Escort Cards

In the name of a minimalist wedding, many-a-bride do away with escort cards thinking it’s not worth the effort. Guess what? The escort cards can save you and, most importantly, your guests a whole lot of stress and hassle.

When you pre-decide the seating arrangement, you can be conscientious of the fact that your older guests like your grandparents and close family members, get to have an unobtrusive spot to relax and enjoy. At the same time, you can assign the seats closest to the dance floor to your friends and young guests.

Place the escort cards on a high table along the entryway, or simply pin them up on a board.

Don’t Neglect the Bar Décor

Not every guest might hop on the dance floor, but they will visit the bar throughout the night – remember this while decorating it. You can be as creative as you want; from fresh fruit infused ice cubes to printing out your signature drink recipe on the napkins.

Getting creative with the Guest Book

If you truly want all the guests to enthusiastically participate in signing the guest book, make the activity fun and creative. For example, you can ask each guest to jot down a marriage advice, or you can place a Polaroid camera and ask them to take a selfie and leave it in the Guest Book folder with their signature.

Don’t Ignore the Cake Table

This one is a bit tricky; you don’t want the cake table to appear carelessly decorated, but you don’t want it to shine so much that it takes the attention away from the cake!

To achieve a nice balance, decorate the table with beautiful linen and place little tea-light candles or small flowers in a scattered way. If you are having an outdoor cake-cutting, opt for a fabric canopy to cover the cake.

Menu Booklets

Depending on the theme – formal or casual – give your menu cards a stylish makeover by color coordinating them with either your signature drink or even wedding stationery. For example, if it’s a multi-course meal, you can choose cute mini booklets instead of card for the menu.